I could feel a strange sense of trepidation emanate through the air, causing me to shiver. I hugged my arms around my chest as I filed the mystery of Brandon's survival to ponder on for another day. First, we had to get a move on.

If the shooters could find our location while we were moving, it would be no question that they would be able to pinpoint us while we were still. Especially since we had been in the same place for more than three days.

I glanced at the soot-stained carrier-bags that looked like they had been through hell and back. After a quick count, I knew we had lost more than two-thirds of our original supply.

A fleeting thought made me wonder if that was what STARKON was aiming for; us to slowly weaken from lack of supplies and then they would strike. It was strange they hadn't stayed to finish us off, but instead disappeared if they had never been there. There was something I was missing, and it made a sliver of unease churn in my stomach.

I caught Brandon staring at me strangely.

"What?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing," he muttered, suddenly finding the dirt-tracked floor extremely interesting

I frowned but shrugged it off; Brandon acting weird was the least of my worries right now.

"So, what now?" I asked, pacing around the room and ignoring the aches and sharp pains that ran through my body with every move.

"While you were unconscious, Brandon and I decided to scout out the area and we found that the closest library was the Central Library of Albastiar." Addison replied. "We thought we would ask you if -" An indecipherable look crossed her face and she stopped. "No - when you woke up whether we were going to continue going to the library."

I nodded, thoughtfully.

Ever since we left, and even way before, STARKON seemed to know exactly where I was and who I was with. Maybe what we were missing was intel on them. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to find out more about them, and maybe we'd find the missing piece.

I voiced my thoughts aloud.

"That's true," Aiden nodded, "While we are at it we can try to find us some more food and other supplies."

"Alright, then how about we split up? We can meet back here in two hours." I glanced at my watch which had surprisingly survived the crash - save for a small crack across the screen.

Even though it seemed that everything was alright again, I couldn't help but feel unease run through my body. It was a miracle that we all survived that crash, but the next time it happened, we wouldn't be so lucky.

No, I mentally scolded myself. We would make it out of this alive, and we would find my father.

"I can go with Levi to the library?" Addison offered, causing me to break out of my thoughts. I was about to agree when I saw an unreadable expression cross Brandon's face. Was he still in pain?

"No, I'll go with Levi to the library." Brandon cut in, causing us all to glance at him, surprised.

"Uhm, sure? If that's fine with you guys?" I glanced at the twins who nodded. Walking over to the pile of soot-painted bags that had been salvaged from the wreck, I was glad to find that the satchel I had packed full of some of my main hacking equipment had remained. Hefting the satchel onto my shoulder, I had been about to leave when a thought occurred to me.

"Wait, someone will recognise me," I almost laughed at the absurdity of this situation. When had my life become so messed up?

"Oh!" Addison exclaimed. "I almost forgot about the disguises!"

I blinked. It seemed like eons away that Addison had told us that she had packed disguises, if the events that had happened in the past few days had anything to say about it.

Addison ran over to the bags in the corner and lifted a bright pink bag full of who knows what with a beaming smile on her face.

Oh god, here goes nothing...

~*~

I walked up the steps of leading towards the front entrance of the library, and couldn't help but marvel at the architectural wonder of it. Tall, wooden double doors, gilded with gold and a large iron handle stood in the centre, with cream walls that stretched into the sky, an occasional arched or stained glass window on the way. I almost wondered if I had stepped into a fairytale.

My usually inky black hair had been bleached a light brown, waves rolling down my back. My eyelids felt heavy with unknown gunk and my face felt as if it was suffocating. A curl of my newly brown hair fell across my vision and from the reflection in a puddle on the side of the road, I was amazed at what Addison could do with a few bottles of water and some brushes. Decked in a flowery dress, I felt uncomfortable in my own skin, but I would rather this than dealing with the repercussions that came with being a wanted fugitive.

I had convinced Addison to let me keep my boots, and I touched the sole, knowing the knife was still there. Hefting my satchel higher onto my shoulder, I glanced back at Brandon. While we weren't certain that they had put up wanted posters for him, Addison or Aiden yet, we didn't want to risk it. Brandon had his coffee-brown hair brushed into his eyes and a pair of fake glasses perched on his nose. He completed the look with a sweater vest, loose jeans and high-topped converse. If I was being honest, he pulled it off quite well.

Pushing open the heavy doors, I stepped into the library, feeling a gush of cool air hit my face. It was a relief from the humidity that the sun brought as we walked on the concrete footpath. I breathed a sigh of relief. We had made it to the library without too much trouble. I could only hope the same for the twins.

The inside of the library was just as huge as the outside implied, with a tall ceiling giving way in the centre to a view of each level, all visible from the front lobby. There were rows upon rows of wooden bookshelves that ran throughout the expansive building, each of them gilded with a gold swirl just like the door to the building.

I gave a quick count and noted that there were at least thirteen storeys. Thirteen storeys for a library? Albastiar sure loved its books, which surprised me because since superheroes were such a big part of the city. You would think that television and other electronic media would be more popular to keep up with the news.

I wandered around between the bookshelves, aiming to find a bay of computers inconspicuously out of the limelight. On the way, I passed an older section of the library, which looked significantly more run down, and the paint slightly peeling on one side. There was a sign; Newspaper Archives and I made a mental note to check that out later. Finally, I found a computer slightly away from the rest and situated in the shadows of a tall, oak shelf. It looked a little older and dustier than the rest, but it'd do.

I pulled out the seat and dropped the satchel at my feet, coughing slightly at the light plume of dust that wafted up at the disturbance. Taking a small hard drive out the open compartment, I thanked the gods I had thought to export my hacking program before we left. I plugged it into the USB port and waited for the computer to start up.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Brandon grab a random book off a nearby shelf and pull out the seat next to me, trying to look as if he belonged there. With his sweater vest, glasses and book in hand, he looked like he did.

Shaking my head, I turned my attention back to the computer screen and went through the mechanical steps that I had been through a thousand times at the expense of my father. Swallowing down the lump in my throat, I focused on the screen in front of me. STARKON's logo appeared, a blinding white against the black of the background. Then, a few moments later, I was in.

Usually, my plan was to try and copy as many folders as possible, corrupting them before they detected me. Today, my aim was to stay undetected. I would leave no trace that I had ever been in their server - or well, at least I hoped.

I pondered my options for a second, before selecting a random folder titled 'Files'. Suddenly, the screen turned a bright red, warning signs flashing. I had hit a firewall. Typing furiously, I attempted to get past it, but as I thought, a real STARKON firewall would be a lot harder to break compared to the ones on the dummy server that I had mistakenly hacked into when I lost my father. I frowned, feeling a drop of sweat run down my brow, as my fingers hit the keyboard at a rapid tempo. If I didn't do anything now, I was going to get blocked.

Reaching a hand back down into the open satchel at my feet, I grabbed the other hard drive that I had placed in there, while my left hand continued typing code into the terminal. I pushed the second drive into the free USB port and waited as dialogue boxes popped up onto the screen. Typing the correct prompts into the bar, I hid a smirk as I watched the firewall fall before my eyes. After typing furiously for a few more seconds, I stretched out my fingers as the screen stopped flashing red and returned to its usual hue.

I was in.

I smirked in satisfaction. No matter how many times I had complained to my father about another one of his villain jobs, I couldn't get over the thrill of when I overcame a persistent firewall. Now that I was in, I could see discrete differences between the actual one and the dummy server that I had been directed to, and in hindsight, I had been stupidly careless.

Shaking those thoughts from my head, I hovered my mouse over the first file, 'Diamond Wolf'. For some reason, the name seemed familiar to me, but I couldn't place where. Shrugging, I clicked on it and frowned as my eyes scanned over the information that was displayed on the screen.

Diamond Wolf:

Name: Ambrosia Rose Beauregard
Hero ID: #152
Power: Agility Streak
Classification: super speed, agility and strength
Appearance: [SEE IMAGE PROVIDED]
Age: 23 [at time of disappearance]
Height: 168cm
Weight: 52kg
Rank: #1 [until her disappearance in XX23]
Other Info: [HIGHER LEVEL CLEARANCE NEEDED]

There was something that didn't sit well after reading through that file. I knew that since her disappearance in XX23 was a year before I was born, I wouldn't have heard much about her, but for being #1 in Hero Rankings would mean that she had gotten a lot of publicity. But then I shrugged it off; Heroes often came and went in Alibastiar.

My eyes slid down to the 'HIGHER LEVEL CLEARANCE NEEDED'. Unease stirred in my stomach as I re-read that line. Of all the times that I had hacked into STARKON's server, I had never encountered this notice. What could possibly need an even higher clearance than one that I had hacked into?

Well, I thought. Not for long it wouldn't.

I took a deep breath and started up my anti-firewall programs again. A string of error boxes popped up on the screen, faster than I could read them, and the screen took on a purple-ish hue.

What was going on?

My fingers were hitting the keys at miles per minute but no matter what, I couldn't get past the security that protected the subfile. Finally, after trying multiple times and in numerous ways, I slumped back in my chair, defeated. There was something about this Diamond Wolf that STARKON wanted to keep a secret, even from STARKON itself. I thought back to the Newspaper Archives that I had passed earlier. Maybe there would be some articles there that could shed some light on this once famous hero.

"Brandon," I whispered, causing him to jump in his seat. It seemed that he had almost fallen asleep - which made me wonder how much sleep he had been getting while I had been unconscious.

"What...?" He mumbled, yawning slightly.

"Can you go back to the newspaper archives that we passed and find articles on Diamond Wolf in the year XX23?" I replied as loud as I dared, unease clawing at my stomach.

There was an unreadable expression that passed over Brandon's face before he nodded.

"Fine, but stay here."

I gave him a weird look.

"Why would I go anywhere else?"

He shrugged, before standing up and walking down the aisle.

"Just don't move."

I frowned at his weird behaviour but shrugged it off. While I waited for him to return, I scanned through the other files in the system. After reading through a few more, I summarised that the heroes that disappeared were all the higher-ranking ones - and they all needed a security clearance to read the 'other info'. It was something about the heroes disappearance that STARKON wanted to hide. But what?

I went back to the file named Diamond Wolf and re-read the information again. Something about it was seriously bugging me. Then, I saw a hyperlink to another file right at the bottom, hidden under a wall of indecipherable text.

'Blank.'

A shiver of apprehension ran down my spine as I hovered the mouse over the link. Shaking off the signs of doubt, I clicked and blinked as it brought me to a whole other file. The profile was structured differently and it took me a while to realise why. This wasn't a hero profile, it was a profile of a citizen; a child.

My eyes scanned over the information, feeling the temperature in the library drop by the second. I saw the image of the child in the right hand corner of the file, and a sliver of ice speared my heart. But... how?

Even though the image showed puffy cheeks and small hands, I knew.

The person in the picture was me.

a.n.

This is now my official longest chapter!! ><

Anyways, what do you guys think is going to happen next?? :O

Special thanks to my editor; SliverSloth for helping me fix up my mistakes. :DDD

SpiderPrincess

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